tear gas

The villagers of Kufr Qaddum look for a creative way to protest the occupation. Photos and text by Oren Ziv / Activestills.org About a hundred and fifty Palestinians, and a few Israelis, took part in a weekend demonstration against the settlements and occupation of Kafr Qaddum. The soldiers were waiting for them in the village, as they do every week. After the demonstrators marched a few hundred meters, the soldiers began shooting rubber bullets and firing tear gas. Some demonstrators threw stones in response, thus the cat and mouse game between soldiers and protesters began throughout the village. [tmwinpost] Once…

A worldwide consortium of civil liberties groups just published new report, 'Lethal in Disguise,' on the health consequences of crowd control weapons, in which Israel features prominently. +972 Magazine speaks to one of the editors about how Israel fares compared to the rest of the world. An increase in popular protests worldwide over the last few years, coupled with the growing militarization of police forces around the globe have created a booming industry for crowd control weapons. Yet international regulations have failed to keep up, and the marketing of these weapons as "less lethal" means that they are frequently misused,…

Protesters held up posters with messages such as 'For Christmas I want every Palestinian child back home.' By Anne Paq and Mustafa Bader / Activestills.org A week before Christmas, Palestinians dressed up as Santa Claus marched toward the separation wall in Bethlehem last Friday, where they clashed with Israeli Border Police. The protesters chanted slogans and held up posters with messages such as "For Christmas I want every Palestinian child back home," in reference to the children who have been arrested by Israeli soldiers over the past two months. The nonviolent Santa Claus march was dispersed with tear gas, after…

Even after 11 years of struggle, the residents of Bil'in refuse to forget about the land that was taken from them. The year was 2006. The village Bil'in near Ramallah had already marked over a year of weekly protests against the separation barrier that cuts them off from their land. One day, during a hearing at the High Court of Justice over a petitioned against the route of the wall, Justice Aharon Barak wondered aloud: "Why do they protest there so often?" [tmwinpost] Nearly 11 years have passed since the residents of this small village decided they wanted to oppose…

The campaign to expel Israel from FIFA makes its way to the weekly anti-occupation protests in the West Bank. As the world watched the FIFA Congress Friday to see whether the international soccer organization would vote to expel Israel from the association, today's weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh took the form of a soccer game. [tmwinpost] Under the watchful eyes of IDF, Border Police and riot police units stationed at the village entrance, Palestinians and internationals placed rocks on the main road to act as goalposts, and began competing against each other in penalty shootouts (the rocks are most often placed…

A new type of sponge-tipped bullet introduced in East Jerusalem last summer has broken arms, fractured faces, destroyed eyesight and killed a teenager. Now a similar projectile is slated for use against Palestinians in the West Bank. Following the introduction last summer of a new type of sponge-tipped bullet into the Israel Police’s arsenal, the Israeli army is now set to begin using a similar projectile in order to disperse demonstrations in the West Bank, according to Ynet [Heb]. The new bullets will be phased in during the coming weeks as a pilot, following which they will be distributed among…

Photos and text by Oren Ziv / Activestills.org Every Friday residents of the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, along with Palestinian, Israeli and international activists, attempt to march to the village’s spring. The small spring was taken over by Israeli settlers from the nearby settlement of Halamish years ago, and the Israeli army now prevents Palestinians from reaching it. Before the protest this past Friday, children from Nabi Saleh placed flowers they picked from the surrounding hills into spent tear gas canisters fired at protesters in weeks past. The children of Nabi Saleh take part in the protests against…

Two Palestinian protesters have been killed from the practice in recent years despite it being illegal. In keeping with a recent upsurge in the illegal use of lethal force during weekly Friday demonstrations in Nabi Saleh, video footage emerged last week of an Israeli soldier firing tear gas canisters directly at protesters on March 13, 2015, filmed by local journalist Bilal Tamimi. Shooting tear gas canisters directly at humans can be deadly, due to the velocity at which the canisters are fired. Just over three years ago, Mustafa Tamimi was killed in the same spot after being hit in the…

Text by Haggai Matar Photos by Yotam Ronen, Shiraz Grinbaum, Miki Kratsman / Activestills.org Nearly 1,000 protesters — Palestinians, Israelis and internationals — marched to celebrate 10 years of popular struggle in the West Bank village Bil'in. Soldiers responded with tear gas, pepper spray and arrests. One Palestinian was badly wounded. Meanwhile, activists marked 21 years since the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, and called to open Shuhada Street to Palestinians. Approximately 1,000 protesters, most of them Palestinian, 100 Israelis and dozens of international activists took part in a large protest in Bil'in on Friday, marking ten years of popular…

The village that managed to unite the world behind the spirit of nonviolent Palestinian protest marks not only a decade of tear gas, night raids and tragedy, but also of co-resistance and victories in its struggle against settlements, the separation barrier and the occupation. Anyone who has visited the West Bank village of Bil’in on a recent Friday might think, just for a second, that they were back in 2005. At first glance, it seems like nothing has changed since the days of the first protests, which began 10 years ago this month. Now, as then, the protesters — mostly…

Dozens of students suffer from tear gas inhalation; army claims stone-throwing youth fled into the school. Israeli soldiers fired large quantities of tear gas into the yard of a high school in the Palestinian village of Burin, near Nablus on Monday. According to Rabbis for Human Rights, the incident took place during the morning roll call, and a number of students suffered from tear gas inhalation. According to Ma’an, soldiers also fired bullets into the air. An Israeli military spokesperson told Ma’an that stones and empty bottlers were thrown toward settlers’ cars in the area Monday morning, and the youths…

The tear gas used by the police in Ferguson, Missouri and the Israeli military in the West Bank is only one of several factors that connects the violence against unarmed youth in both communities. Text and photos by: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org The New York Times’ Robert Mackey recently tweeted a photo of the tear gas cartridges found on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, where police have been using the weapon against demonstrators angry at the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager. Both the cartridge and the tactics looked very familiar, and for good reason. Jamestown, PA's CTS brand tear…

In East Jerusalem on Friday: Thousands participate in the funeral of Muhammad Abu Khdeir, the 16-year-old Palestinian boy who was allegedly murdered by Jewish extremists. Large police forces prepared for the event in advance, with violent clashes erupting as the funeral came to an end. According to reports, 18 Palestinians have been wounded, and the police is using tear gas against stone-throwing youths.

About +972 Magazine

+972 is an independent, blog-based web magazine. It was launched in August 2010, resulting from a merger of a number of popular English-language blogs dealing with life and politics in Israel and Palestine.

+972 is an independent, blog-based web magazine. It was launched in August 2010, resulting from a merger of a number of popular English-language blogs dealing with life and politics in Israel and Palestine.